Czech 2005 prospects: Tomas Kudelka

By Robert Neuhauser

November 2nd, 2003

Czech hockey is more known for developing top-notch offensive talent,but a number of Czech defensemen enjoy solid NHL careers as well. One of thoseeager to join the likes of Roman Hamrlik, Rostislav Klesla or JaroslavModry is Tomas Kudelka, a defenseman from the Zlin junior team.

Kudelka had relatively a late beginning to his hockey career. Hewasn’t born in a family where anyone was involved inhockey in any way and didn’t have anybody who would bring him to thegame. Kudelka just liked sports, but didn’t prefer any particular one. At thattime advertising of hockey paid off. The team in his native city,Zlin, Czech Republic, made a call to all elementary schools in thecity, if any of the kids would be interested in playing organizedhockey. Tomas Kudelka was already eight years old and still not playingany sport, so he decided to give hockey a try.

From that time on, he went to the Ludek Cajka Arena in Zlinregularly. Kudelka laced up the skates for the first time and began to learn howto skate and move the puck. He spent one year with practicing thehockey basics and soon was good enough to compete at his respective agelevel, the 4th grade. Some of his teammates were playing for a longer timethan Kudelka, but his strong attitude and a willingness to listen tothe advice given to him helped him to overcome this.

Zlin 4th grade head coach Jiri Solc put Kudelka on defense, withoccasional moves to the forward positions. Kudelka was happy with playingdefense and besides patrolling his own zone he also joined the rushwhen he had the chance to do so. He wasn’t a player who would stand outfrom the youngest grades, in the beginnings on his career he was just anaverage defenseman on the Zlin 1987 borns team.

But Kudelka recorded a steady improvement in every one of his seasons atthe pee-wee level. He was competing at every practice or game and couldoutplay the opponents who weren’t as dedicated as he was. Thanks to hisoffensive flair Kudelka, nicknamed ‘Kudas’, ‘Koudel’ or ‘Kudis’from his surname, could also support the offense and put up decent numbers fora rearguard. In the 6th grade under head coach Eduard Svoboda he wonhis first individual trophy for the Best Defenseman at one youthtournament.

His play in the own end became more reliable and Kudelka learned how toplay in position more and added a bit of toughness to his game. Hisseason for the 7th grade team was above average and beginning with the8th grade, Tomas Kudelka was voted captain of his team. Zlin 8th gradecoaches Zdenek Svoboda and Libor Zilka recognized the talent Kudelkahad and gave him lots of tips on improving his strength, which wasnecessary in surviving in the upcoming leap to the midget Extraleague.Kudelka could skate and make plays, but not outmuscle his opponents. This wassomething he had to work on.

He captained his team for two seasons and after completing his seasonfor the 9th grade he was ready to perform for the Zlin midgets. He hadhis season for the 9th grade shortened with a broken hand he suffered ata meeting of the regional teams, but was ready to start the summerworkouts on time. Tomas Kudelka had a short call-up to the midget teamalready in 2001-2002. Zlin midgets head coach Jaroslav Stuchlik gave him ataste of the midget Extraleague in 7 games, where Kudelka wentscoreless, with a good +/- of +4 and 2 PIMs.

The 2002-2003 campaign was his first full midget season. Thanks to theexperience from the previous season Kudelka didn’t have any troublewith his adjustment to the midget Extraleague pace. He provided histeam with solid defensive savvy and a decent offensive output. Kudelkajoined the rush frequently and also saw significant powerplay time. Thisresulted into Kudelka posting good numbers. In 37 games for the Zlinmidgets Kudelka amassed 14 points for 2 goals and 12 assists and 38 PIMs.He felt most comfortable when playing behind the Psurny twins, Kudelkacould feed them with smart passes and the two offensive forwardschipped the pucks in. Kudelka shared with his teammates success as the Zlinmidgets fought their way into the midget Extraleague finals, where theylost to Trinec, but the silver medals were also a respectableachievement.

Tomas Kudelka burst onto the international stage in 2002-2003. Hepulled off an impressive showing at the evaluation camp of the CzechUnder-16 team and coaches Bretislav Kopriva and Vladimir Bednar have invitedKudelka to all but one tournament of the international schedule.Kudelka only didn’t make the trip to the three-game series against theUnder-16 team of Slovakia, played in August, 2002. So he had to wait till thethree-game series against the Under-16 team of Switzerland to make hisinternational debut. He notched 1 assist in that series.Kudelka went scoreless at the upcoming event, a three-game series againstthe Under-16 team of Russia. But he entered the scoresheet at the mainevent of the season, the Four Nations Tournament of the Under-16 teams,where he registered 1 assist. He closed out the season withan appearance in a three-game series against the Under-16 team ofSlovakia, notching 2 assists. This rounded out Kudelka’s international statsat 12 games played and 4 points for 4 assists.

After showing maturity beyond his age at the midget level, TomasKudelka wasn’t invited back for his second full midget season and made theleap already to the junior team. Zlin juniors head coach StanislavPrikrly was happy with the performance he saw from Kudelka at the summer campand rewarded him with a regular spot on the Zlin juniors defensiverotation. So far has Kudelka dressed out for 15 junior games, scoring 4points for 4 assists, a huge +/- of +14 and 16 PIMs.

He made his first appearance with the Czech Under-17 team at the FiveNations Tournament, played in Prievizda, Slovakia this past August.Kudelka went scoreless at this event, but will look to bounce back at theupcoming tournament in Kuortane, Finland, which will be played the nextweek.

A smooth skater, Tomas Kudelka impresses with his above-average speedand agility. He is fast backwards and has solid lateral movement to goalong with his good balance. He is an offensive-minded rearguard anddisplays remarkable poise when moving the puck. Kudelka uses his reacheffectively and is adept at distributing the pucks smartly. He is stillprone to the odd bad decision with the puck, though. Kudelka ispositionally sound and doesn’t tend to make mistakes in this aspect. He doesn’thesitate to fire his shot, which is quite accurate, but needs tobe more hard. On the downside Kudelka could play with more of a meanstreak and show his nasty edge more often. At 6’1”, 180 lbs. he possessesa solid frame, but isn’t fully using it to his advantage. Overall he isa good package of skill, smarts and offensive upside, once he developshis aggressiveness enough then he can possibly think of a career in NorthAmerica.

Kudelka admires the play of Detroit RedWings star defenseman Niklas Lidstrom and considers Lidstrom the world’sbest defenseman these days.

Kudelka is careful about doing all his pre-game superstitions beforeeach game. He keeps them secret, except of one. He puts the gear alwaysfrom the right side first and sticks to this superstition for a longtime. On the Zlin junior team he had to give up his favorite number 15 asthis is the number of the team’s captain, overager JakubVenera. He had to switch to number 35, but has no problem with this.

Tomas Kudelka prefers to spend his free time with his girlfriend Pavla.When they aren’t together, then you’ll find Kudelka mostly playing some othersport. He is an all-round athlete and likes to play soccer or tennis. School takes a good chunk of Kudelka’s free time, he is in thesecond year of his studies at a secondary school for sports in Zlin,which is also attended by his teammates, the twins Roman and MichalPsurny. A fond of hard rock music, Tomas Kudelka prefers to listen to thegroups Linkin Park or Blink 182, which always put him in a good mood.

Represented by agent Robert Spalenka, Kudelka isn’t rushing to the CHL.He isn’t ruling out coming over, but his goal is to play at theUnder-18 WJC and only after that think about the CHL. In 2005 he has a very good chance of achieving this goal.